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Canvas No. 9 of the series of nine large paintings "Stories from the Life of St Ursula".
The Apotheosis of St Ursula and her Followers, signed and dated 1491 on the cartouche below the circle of angels' heads around the palm-trunk, is also one of the earlier canvases of the cycle. The theory, supported by some scholars, that this altarpiece actually dates from 1510 when Carpaccio supposedly repainted it since the original version had been badly damaged, has been disproved by a recent X-ray of the whole painting (which has, incidentally, revealed that the three splendid male portraits to the left are later additions).
But the theory can also be disproved by a stylistic analysis: compare it, for instance, to the Presentation in the Temple, which dates from around 1510, also in the Accademia. The complexity of the perspective foreshortening of the marble aedicula, of the furled banners, of the figure of Ursula surrounded by angels and with God the Father looking down at her, is far too self-conscious and still too close to the style of Mantegna to be the work of the established artist active around 1510. Both the central episode of the composition and the heads of the virgin martyrs crowded in the lower part of the painting show quite clearly that this altarpiece dates from the same stylistic period as the painting depicting the Pilgrims' Arrival in Cologne. And even the artist's reluctance to reconcile the devotional and iconographical aspect of the work to the narrative and dramatic elements, which he was more interested in, suggest an early dating.
The most poetic element of this painting are certainly the two Venetian landscape details, with their lively and fresh colours, and the loving precision with which he describes the hills, the urban fabric, the countryside, the events of daily life.
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